Wednesday, September 24, 2014

How much does your college bring in from the GI Bill? If you attend a for-profit college, most likely a lot. Below is a look at the amount Globe University / Minnesota School of Business and Globe Education Network schools have brought in from the GI Bill for years 2009-2010, 2011-2012, 2012-2013. The Globe University headquarters is located inside John Kline's district and one of his largest donors.

Federal funding schools receive from the GI Bill is not considered Title IV funding and not factored into the 90/10 rule, which mandates that for-profit colleges cannot receive more than 90% of their revenues from Title IV federal student aid. If, however, this were considered part of Title IV federal student aid, many schools would be very close or exceed 90%. Broadview University is a good example. Currently, 20% of Broadview's students are veterans. In the 2011-2012 year, Broadview University received $15,759,749 in federal student aid, which calculates to 79.62% of their total revenue. That same year, Broadview University campuses collectively received $1,078,841 from the GI Bill. If this were considered Title IV federal student aid, it would push Broadview University's Title IV revenue to 89%- just a hair below 90%.

This, of course does not include the federal funding that Broadview (as well as other Globe Education Network schools) receives from other federal funding sources such as the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Trade Assistance Adjustment program (TAA). If all of this were included as well, it would be interesting to see if Broadview's total revenue exceed 90% from government funding.

Saturday, September 13, 2014

It should not surprise anyone that Representative John Kline was voted to be the worst member of Congress in Bill Maher's #FlipADistrict campaign. For years, Kline has ignored issues that are important to the voters and has proven to be one of the sleaziest politicians in office today.

A major issue is Kline's unwillingness to even pretend to fight for young people today, particularly on higher education. As the chair of the Education and Workforce Committee, he has bent over backwards to work for the for-profit college industry and essentially given the middle finger to current, former, and future college students. Examples include opposing the Student Loan Forgiveness Act, and even writing a bill that would reduce the budget deficit by raising student loan interest rates. Even more recently, Kline used his leadership position to quash a bill that would help stop for-profit colleges from exploiting veterans and gaming the federal aid system.

Kline has made it clear to the people in his district and the rest of the country, that he feels these poorly performing schools are his real constituents. Kline remains the number one recipient of campaign funding from the for-profit industry for one reason: he will continue to push for less regulation over the for-profit college industry, so they can continue to defraud taxpayers and profit off the millions of people they saddle with student loan debt, and often never graduate.

If your Congressperson is stuck in the past, doesn’t understand women, and voted, “YEA, there is rape, and other kinds of rape, remember they did this and VOTE THEM OUT. Minnesota’s Congressional District 2 Congressman John Kline voted YEA. VOTE HIM OUT!

If John Kline had his way, these rape numbers would be greatly reduced. And that’s the wrong way to reduce the occurrence of rape!

The visuals below take a look at the sexual assaults on campuses from 2012. There's a huge problem and re-defining the word, "rape" is not the solution.

The 100 U.S. Colleges and Universities with the Highest Rates of Reported Forcible Sexual Assaults on Campus (per 1000 Students) - 2012 data